Reagan's 1980 election resulted from a dramatic conservative shift to the right in American politics, including a loss of confidence in liberal, New Deal, and Great Society programs and priorities that had dominated the national agenda since the 1930s. Domestically, the Reagan administration enacted a major tax cut, sought to cut non-military spending, and eliminated federal regulations. The administration's economic policies, known as "Reaganomics", were inspired by supply-side economics. The combination of tax cuts and an increase in defense spending led to budget deficits, and the federal debt increased significantly during Reagan's tenure. Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (which simplified the tax code by reducing rates and removing several tax breaks) and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Reagan also appointed more federal judges than any other president, including four Supreme Court Justices. Reagan's foreign policy stance was resolutely anti-communist; its plan of action, known as the Reagan Doctrine, sought to roll back the global influence of the Soviet Union in an attempt to end the Cold War. Under this doctrine, the Reagan administration initiated a massive buildup of the United States military; promoted new technologies such as missile defense systems; and, in 1983, undertook an invasion of Grenada, the first major overseas action by U.S. troops since the end of the Vietnam War. The administration also created controversy by granting aid to paramilitary forces seeking to overthrow leftist governments, particularly in war-torn Central America and Afghanistan. Specifically, the Reagan administration engaged in covert arms sales to Iran to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua that were fighting to overthrow their nation's socialist government; the resulting scandal led to the conviction or resignation of several administration officials. During Reagan's second term, he sought closer relations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and the two leaders signed a major arms control agreement known as the INF Treaty.

1. America in the Reagan Years (1981- 9)
The Rise of the Modern Conservative
Movement
Boutkhil Guemide
University Mohammed Boudiaf,
M’sila

2. INTRODUCTION
• Ronald Wilson Reagan, (February 6, 1911 - June 5, 2004).
• The 40th President of the US (1981- 9).
• Early career: He was also an actor before he entered his political
career.
• Early 1981: Inflation and unemployment were threatening the
US.
• International level: the US has lost its prestige until its closest
ally is questioning its ability to lead the Western camp.
• Reagan's term (1981- 9): Unemployment and inflation have fallen
to their lowest level since the end of World War II, the national
economy has recovered, and manufacturing and export have
boomed.
• Foreign relations: Reagan broke the ex- USSR.
• Building a huge military arsenal, relies on the latest technology
available at the time, and not before the countries of the eastern
camp combined to confront them.
• Reagan obliged the Soviet leadership to engage in peace talks,
quickly responded, concluding treaties to curb the arms race.
• The US emerged as a great power, leading the Western camp.

3. Ronald Reagan
• Born in Illinois, 1911
• Lifeguard, Radio
Announcer
• Launched an acting
career during the
Great Depression
• Became conservative
during socialist and
communist threats in
the movie industry
(HUAC)
• Switched from
Democratic to
Republican Party in
the late 50s/early 60s

4. America a nation ready for change in 1980
Low Spirits
• People lacked confidence in
government.
• The turbulent 1960s,
Watergate, the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, the
Iranian hostage crisis, and
long gasoline lines put
Americans in an uneasy
mood.
• Critics said Carter blamed
Americans for the crisis in
confidence instead of fixing
the problems.
• A conservative movement
that opposed liberal social
and racial policies was
growing.
The 1980 Election
•Reagan promised to return the
country to a simpler time of
low taxes, smaller government,
a strong military, and
conservative moral values.
•Focused on “ family, work,
neighborhood, peace, and
freedom.”
•Reagan asked if people were
better off than they were four
years ago.
•Reagan and his running mate,
George H.W. Bush, won in a
landslide; Republicans also
gained control of the Senate.

5. Carter’s Crisis of Confidence
• President Carter struggled with
inflation, high unemployment, and
soaring energy costs.
• After the 1979 Islamic Revolution,
Iran stopped oil shipments to the
US.
• He delivered a televised address
that became known as the
"Malaise Speech."
• Carter asks Americans to return to
the attitudes and values that made
America strong and to share the
responsibility of energy
conservation.
• Congress rejected most of the
energy proposals in the speech.
• Carter's approval rating
plummeted.
• The president was criticized for
"blaming" the American people and
offering few solutions.

6. Carter’s “Malaise Speech”
• “In a nation that was proud of
hard work, strong families,
close-knit communities, and our
faith in God, too many of us
now tend to worship self-
indulgence and consumption.”
• “This intolerable dependence
on foreign oil threatens our
economic independence and the
very security of our nation. The
energy crisis is real.”
• “Every act of energy
conservation like this is more
than just common sense -- I tell
you it is an act of patriotism.”Gas lines during the energy crisis

7. Roe v. Wade Mobilizes Conservatives
• In Roe v. Wade (1973), the
Supreme Court ruled that
state laws restricting abortion
violated a woman's
constitutional right to privacy.
• The issue of legalized abortion
helped galvanize the rise of
the Christian Right in the
1970's and 1980's.
• In the wake of the sexual
revolution and the women's
liberation movement, many
conservatives sought to restore
"traditional family values".

8. Iran Hostage Crisis
• After US-backed Shah of
Iran was deposed in January
1979, the most westernized
country in the Middle East
transitioned to an Islamic
fundamentalist regime led
by Ayatollah Ruholla
Khomeini.
• When President Carter
allowed the Shah into the
US for cancer treatment, a
student group stormed the
US embassy in Iran and took
53 staff members hostage.
• Public support for Carter
quickly waned as the months
dragged on with no progress.

9. • After months of abortive efforts
to forge a diplomatic solution, the
President ordered a secret
military rescue operation in April
1980.
• The operation ended in disaster
before getting close to the
embassy when two helicopters
malfunctioned and another
collided with a cargo plane,
killing eight service members.
• Iranians displayed the burned
corpses before television
cameras.
• The Iran Hostage Crisis became
symbolic of the decline of US
prestige in the world and the
President was criticized for
incompetence.
• After 444 days of captivity, the
hostages were released
immediately after Reagan's
inauguration in January 1981.Wreckage of Operation Eagle Claw

10. Phyllis Schlafly and the ERA
• One item on the agenda of social
conservatives in the 1970's was the
defeat of the Equal Rights
Amendment.
• Many felt that felt that "traditional
family values" had been undermined
by the women's liberation movement.
• Others were repelled by what they
believed was intervention by the state
into the private sphere.
• The campaign to stop ratification, led
by activist and self-described
homemaker Phyllis Schlafly,
demonstrated the financial and
political capabilities of the emerging
New Right.
• ERA died in 1982, just three votes
short of passage.

11. The New Conservative Coalition
The NEW RIGHT
– Conservative evangelical
Christians
• To restore Christian Values in
America
– Southern Democrats
– Reduction of Social Programs
– Called for reduction in size and
power of government
– Favored return of US military
pride
– Patriotic focus

12. Televangelism
• Evangelical television
progamming enjoyed a rising
level of influence and
viewership throughout the
1970's and 1980's.
• Charismatic "televangelists"
like Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker,
Jimmy Swaggert, and Pat
Robertson delivered rousing
sermons that resonated with
disaffected evangelicals and
translated into political action.
Jim and Tammy
Faye Bakker

13. Political Influence of the Christian Right
• Groups like the National
Conservative Political Action
Committee and Reverend
Jerry Falwell's Moral
Majority pioneered the use of
sophisticated campaigning
and fundraising techniques
such as direct mail.
• The influence and campaign
tactics of Christian Right
delivered a critical proportion
of votes to Ronald Reagan in
1980.Rev. Jerry Falwall

14. Intellectual Foundations of Modern
Conservatism: Goldwater
•Senator Barry
Goldwater is
widely regarded
as the Father of
Modern
American
Conservatism.

15. “Reagan's televised Speech”
• "A Time for Choosing" speech;
• Reagan outlined the goals of
the modern conservative
movement:
• smaller government, lower
taxes, personal autonomy,
and more aggressive policy
toward Communist states.
• He implies that liberal
policies represent a
dangerous shift toward
socialism.

16. The 1980 Election
•President
Jimmy Carter
(Democrat) Vs.
Ronald
Reagan
(Republican)

18. Assassination Attempt
• John Hickley Jr. –
assassin
– Wanted to win Jodie
Foster’s heart
• Three people shot,
including Reagan
• Just 69 days into first
presidency
• Reagan recovered to
shot in lung
• James Brady, Press
Secretary suffered a
head shot and was
disabled.

19. REGEANOMICS
Reduce the growth of
government spending
Reduce the federal income
tax and capital gains tax
Reduce
government regulation
Tighten the money supply in
order to reduce inflation

20. Supply-Side Economics:
“Reaganomics”
• Cut taxes to put more money
into the hands of businesses
• Cut taxes on the wealthiest
Americans
• Lower taxes = more investment
in the “supply side” of the
economy
• Would:
– promote and create new jobs
– encourage capital investment,
and
– lead to stimulated industrial
growth

21. Tax breaks
to the
wealthy
capital
accumulation
higher
productivity
lower prices job creation
Lot of tax
revenues
collected by
the
government
money to
reduce federal
budget deficits

22. SUPPLY- SIDE ECONOMICS
• Macroeconomic theory;
• Economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering
taxes and decreasing regulation;
• SUPPLY- SIDE ECONOMICS Vs. DEMAND– SIDE
ECONOMICS;
• Consumers will then benefit from a greater supply of goods
and services at lower prices and employment will increase.
• Increased taxation steadily reduces economic activity within
a nation and discourages investment.
• Taxes act as a type of trade barrier or tariff that causes
economic participants to revert to less efficient means of
satisfying their needs.
• Higher taxation leads to lower levels of specialization and
lower economic efficiency.
• Pay fewer taxes leading to more savings
• Banks could loan more
• Supplies of goods increases driving the prices down.

23. CUTTING GOVERNMENT
REGULATION- “DEREGULATION”
•Continued to
deregulate key
industries
•Energy,
Transportation and
Banking Industries
•Challenged Air
Traffic Controllers in
1981.

24. Did It Work?
• William A. Niskanen, a founder of Reaganomics &
Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers (1981- 5): “President
Reagan delivered on each of his four major policy objectives,
although not to the extent that he and his supporters had
hoped.”
• Inflation was tamed.
• This sparked a deep recession in 1981 and 1982.
• The high interest rates caused the value of the dollar to rise
on the international exchange market, making American
goods more expensive abroad.
• As a result, exports increased while imports increased.
• The economy stabilized in 1983, and the remaining years of
Reagan's administration showed national growth.
• Government spending was not lowered.
• The federal debt almost tripled, from $997 billion in 1981 to
$2.857 trillion in 1989.

25. Tax Cuts Reagan cut tax rates enough to stimulate consumer demand.
By Reagan's last year in office, the top income tax rate was 28 %.
Reagan offset these tax cuts with tax increases elsewhere: He raised
Social Security payroll taxes and some excise taxes.
Reagan cut the corporate tax rate from 46 % to 40 %.
Slow Spending Growth Government spending still grew.
Reagan increased spending by 2.5 % a year, mostly for defense.
Reagan did not cut Social Security or Medicare payments: Reagan's
budgeted spending was 22 % of the GDP.
Reduce Regulations Reagan eliminated price controls on domestic oil and gas.
Free- market equilibrium prevented inflation.
Reagan also deregulated cable TV, long- distance telephone service,
interstate bus service, and ocean shipping.
He eased bank regulations, but that helped create the Savings and Loan
Crisis in 1989.
Reagan increased import barriers. He doubled the number of items that
were subject to trade restraint from 12 % in 1980 to 23 % in 1988.
He did little to reduce other regulations affecting health, safety, and the
environment.
Tame Inflation Reagan & Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Volcker vigorously used contractionary monetary policy.
He began raising the federal funds rate.
These rates choked off economic growth.
Volcker's policy triggered the recession of 1981 to 1982.

26. 1981 AIDS identified
• 41,027 persons are dead;
• 71,176 persons diagnosed with AIDS in the US.

27. Reagan’s Foreign Policy
• The Reagan Doctrine: A Proactive Anti-USSR Policy
• President Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy: John Foster Dulles’ “Roll-
Back” strategy from the 1950s. The US would actively push back the
influence of the Soviet Union.
• “Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few; it is the universal
right of all God’s children.” America’s “mission” was to “nourish and
defend freedom and democracy… . We must not break faith with those
who are risking their lives-- on every continent
from Afghanistan to Nicaragua--to defy Soviet- supported aggression and
secure rights which have been ours from birth."
• A program of military assistance to “freedom fighters.”: A strategy
implemented by the Reagan Administration to overwhelm the global
influence of the Soviet Union in the late Cold War.
• The doctrine was a centerpiece of US foreign policy from the early
1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991.
• Overt and covert aid to anti- communist guerrillas and resistance
movements in an effort to "roll back" Soviet-backed pro-communist
governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
• The doctrine was designed to diminish Soviet influence in these regions
as part of the administration's overall strategy to win the Cold War.

28. President Reagan and the Cold War
•Reagan rejected the policies of
containment and détente; He wanted to
destroy communism.
•Reagan obtained massive increases in
military spending.
–Much of the new spending went to
nuclear weapons.
–Promoted the Strategic Defense
Initiative (SDI)—a shield in space to
protect the US against incoming
Soviet missiles.

29. Reagan & Military
Buildup
• Sharp increase in military
spending= buildup
• New weapons and new
technology
• Neoconservatives (Dick
Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz,
Condoleeza Rice, Richard
Armistead, Colin Powell)
• Strategic Defense
Initiative (SDI)= Star
Wars

30. The Soviet Union
•By the late 1970s the Soviet
economy was shrinking.
•Industrial and farm
production, population growth,
education, and medical care all
fell.
•The Soviet Union started
importing food
•Strikes in Poland led by Lech
Walesa highlighted Soviet
weaknesses.
•Walesa successfully forced the
Soviet-backed government to
legalize independent trade
unions.
•He also led a new independent
union called Solidarity.
U.S.-Soviet Relations
•A visionary leader came to
power in the Soviet
Union—Mikhail
Gorbachev.
•Believed the only way to
save the Soviet Union was
to strike a deal with the US
•Between 1985 and 1988
Reagan and Gorbachev met
four times and produced
the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces (INF)
Treaty.
•First treaty to actually
reduce nuclear arms
•INF Treaty destroyed a
whole class of weapons.

31. • Covertly supporting:
• The Contras Vs. the leftist Sandinista government
in Nicaragua;
• The Afghan Mujahedeens in their fight against
the Soviet occupiers;
• Anti- communist Angolan forces.
• 1989: Reagan claimed his policy’s success in
weakening the Sandinista government, forcing the
Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan, and
bringing an end to the conflict in Angola.
• Domestic critics: Reagan’s actions in supporting of
so-called “freedom fighters” resulted only in
prolonging and escalating bloody conflicts and in
U.S. support of repressive and undemocratic
elements in each of the respective nations.

32. What foreign trouble spots persisted during
Reagan’s presidency?
• Latin America: The US supported several anti-
Communist governments and rebel groups in
the region;
• Lebanon: The US was part of an international
peacekeeping force that tried to halt the
country’s civil war
• Grenada: Reagan sent 5,000 marines to invade
the island in order to stop a violent Communist
coup
• South Africa: Congress overrode a Reagan veto
and passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid
Act to help end apartheid in the country

33. Upheaval in Latin
America
El Salvador
Violent civil war between
Marxist guerrillas and
government troops supported by
armed extremist groups
Reagan administration
supported José Napoleón
Duarte—a moderate leader who
won the 1984 election.
Nicaragua
U.S- backed Anastasio Somoza
Debayle was ousted by the
Sandinistas—a Marxist group.
Reagan cut off aid to Nicaragua
saying that the Sandinistas were
backed by the USSR.
Reagan then allowed the CIA to
equip and train a Sandinista
opposition group called the
Contras.
Congress cut off funds to the
Contras and banned all further
direct or indirect U.S. support of
them.

34.  La contrarrevolución
 Various US -backed and funded right-wing rebel groups;
 Active rebels (1979- 1990)
 Opposition to the socialist Sandinista Junta of National
Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua;
 José Francisco Cardenal + Enrique Bermúdez= Nicaraguan
Democratic Force (FDN)
 1987: the Nicaraguan Resistance.
Contras

36. The Iran- Contra Affairs
• The Iran- Iraqi War (1980- 8)
• Despite the Congressional ban on U.S. funds for the Contras
war, Reagan’s national security staff sought to continue the
funding.
• In 1985 National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane
persuaded Reagan to sell arms to Iran in hopes that Iran
would help obtain the release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon.
• Members of the National Security Council staff then secretly
diverted the money from the sale of arms to Iran to the
Contras in Nicaragua.

38. Cold War
• Afghanistan
–Soviet republic
–In 1970s Afghans
tried to fight Soviets
for independence
• 1980s
• USA convinces
Saudi Arabia to
send troops
“mujahadeen” to
fight against Soviets
• Oussama Bin Laden

39. Election of 1984• Patriotic Renewal
• 59% of popular vote
• Second largest electoral
victory in history
• 1984 Olympics in Los
Angeles
• Communist-bloc countries
boycotted
• 1986 - 100th anniversary of
Statue of Liberty
• 1987 - 200th anniversary of
the Constitution

40. •AIDS Awareness
•Women’s Movement stalled
•Supreme Court conservatives
–Sandra Day O’Connor
–Anthony Kennedy
–Antonin Scalia
–Chief Justice William Rehnquist
1984-1988

41. • Farm Crisis- foreclosures
• Manufacturing shift- from
metal and textiles
• Service sectors continued to
grow
• Wealthiest Americans
flourished in the 1980s
• Jan 28, 1986: Space Shuttle
Challenger exploded shortly
after take off.